Lee Marvin: A Personal Portraitby John Boorman "While trolling youtube for all things Lee Marvin and Parker I discovered this really nifty mini-documentary that filmmaker John Boorman (Point Blank, Hell in the Pacific, Deliverance, Excalibur) did for the BBC called Lee Marvin: A Personal Portrait. It's really fantastic with appearances from folks like William Hurt, Jim Jarmusch, Pamela Marvin, and others. Readings from Marvin's personal journal about his WWII experiences as well as his great fishing expeditions in Australia. And yes, you'll be able to see the wallet Marvin was carrying when a bullet went whizzing through and granted him his Purple Heart."posted by puny human (23 comments total)
25 users marked this as a favorite

Ahhh, the world needs more Lee Marvin, thanks puny human!posted by ouke at 11:57 AM on July 5, 2011

My favorite Lee Marvin performance is in The Iceman Cometh. I prefer his version of Hickey to Jason Robards. I think it might have something to do with Lee Marvin's interaction with Robert Ryan, who played Larry Slade.posted by perhapses at 12:25 PM on July 5, 2011

Lee Marvin's series of defeats in court of his erstwhile live in companion, Michelle Marvin, have been landmark cases in the area of "palimony".

TL;DR: Lee Marvin's girlfriend wanted half his stuff when they broke up. Lee Marvin said hell no. Girlfriend got $104K award in the first case. Marvin appealed the case and she ended up getting nothing.posted by reenum at 2:24 PM on July 5, 2011

"I'm not at liberty to divulge information about the organization, other than to tell you that it does exist. I can identify three other members of the organization: Tom Waits, John Lurie, and Richard Bose. You have to have a facial structure such that you could be related to, or be a son of, Lee Marvin. There are no women, obviously, in the organization. We have communiques and secret meetings. Other than that, I can't talk about it." -- Jim Jarmuschposted by macadamiaranch at 2:27 PM on July 5, 2011

For some reason I always think of The Big Red One, and Lee Marvin chanting "pussy...pussy... pussy" while delivering a baby inside a tank.posted by selfnoise at 2:34 PM on July 5, 2011

I didn't really think I could love Lee Marvin any more until I learned that he went on record as supporting gay rights--in 1969.posted by Rangeboy at 2:39 PM on July 5, 2011

Nice post, I've always enjoyed Marvin's films, particularly Point Blank. I didn't know he was a flaming liberal and early supporter of gay rights. Good on him.

He died too young, sixty three. What a marvelous face and physique. For some reason, you don't see many like that these days in the upper echelons of acting, don't know why. Then again, he lived like he took no prisoners, and looked an absolute wreck by his late 40's. I don't know what it was, but it seems to me people aged much faster back in the day, and the further back you go, the more so - unless it's confirmation bias on my part. Maybe more people smoked/drank heavily, had a bad diet or whatnot. Sometimes you look at these portraits/pictures, and by their 40's/50's, folks seemed really "done". Life expectancy has been rising, but of course some of it is made up of better infant/child mortality stats, but still.posted by VikingSword at 3:41 PM on July 5, 2011

Really, the only person who rivals Lee Marvin for the title of Biggest Hollywood Badass is 6-foot-5 Sterling Hayden, who left Hollywood at the beginning of his career to join the Marines, transfer to the OSS, and parachute into Yugoslavia to shoot Nazis in the face.posted by Rangeboy at 3:48 PM on July 5, 2011

Just thought I'd mention that my favorite Lee Marvin role was Ben Rumpson is Paint Your Wagon.posted by ericales at 4:11 PM on July 5, 2011 [2 favorites]

For some reason, you don't see many like that these days in the upper echelons of acting, don't know why.

I've noticed that. I'd go further and say we don't get a lot of actors who can convincingly exude menace in America. Nor King Actors. A few Britishers (Jason Stathem) and Frenchmen (Jean Reno), and possibly a New Zealander (Russell Crowe), but in America, not so much. Tough Guys don't go into acting. Perhaps it has to do with the years of a good economy? Those with one foot in the Great Depression were perhaps less self conscious about where the pay check came from? Or perhaps the training was more on-the-job and therefore more open to them with Tough Guy backgrounds? Be curious to hear other thoughts on or refutations of this.

the only person who rivals Lee Marvin...

Charles Durning landed at Normandy, fought at the Bulge, won a silver star and three purple hearts.

And, living up to the swashbuckling family myth, Douglas Fairbanks Jr had a serious career in the US Navy during the second war.posted by IndigoJones at 4:39 PM on July 5, 2011

Boorman is an unsung auteur of considerable interest! And Point Blank is a trippy movie.

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